AIBU to think cats should not roam unsupervised like dogs?

Cats aren’t allowed in local cafes, pubs etc. well they might be allowed but I’ve never taken mine inside. At least I’m not a selfish dog owner who thinks everyone loves my cat, therefore I must take it everywhere with me.

My cat arrived via the cat distribution system so no opportunity for kitten training to walk on a lead. she was living rough and up the duff. We just had to go with the flow and she only started to come in at all very gradually. As she was a rough sleeper she was a killing machine. She would eat everything she killed and actually got quite porky off that. I didn’t notice a decrease in bird numbers - that only came when neighbours systematically removed trees from their garden. I did notice a decrease in mouse numbers.
living semi rural we would often have them in the house pre cat and now she is ‘retired’ they are coming back again. Bells didn’t work at all
with her and I stopped with collars all together after the I found her choking on the ‘fast release’ collar.

My old girl only uses her litter tray now but I know she used to poop in the neighbours garden. I remember sneaking round once to retrieve it. Cat poop is foul. I get that. I think the difference with dogs is that most cats don’t poop anywhere and everywhere. They toilet to mark territory, in corners and edges and cover it up. In my childhood neighbourhood dogs roamed free and the poop was everywhere on the pavements. Kids roamed too and I remember terrifying encounters with dogs, including being attacked. Dont remember that with cats..

On the Facebook rants re: RTA’, I do eye roll. There are always dramatic accusations of speeding and accusations that the driver should have stopped/hunted for the cat
and taken it to the vet. As I understand it, owners are legally responsible for dogs but not cats; hence there is an obligation to report an RTA for dogs not cats. That’s the trade off. Can’t have it both ways. For my girl, making her an indoor car would have been cruel
but I also accept there is a risk with letting her out so I have to accept that.

If you got an air pistol and shot at my cat I’d report you to the police.

Cats have been considered domestic pets in urban environments for years. It’s only the occasional misery guts who hates them. I saw a cat tonight cross the road and sit outside DB’s neighbours house beside a wall, occasionally washing itself. Hardly being antisocial.

We have a huge dog population in our neighbourhood with countless dog owners not clearing up after them…. Also plenty of (large) dogs off the lead running up to strangers jumping up on them with the owners just laughing saying their dog is friendly… If only dog owners trained their dogs correctly …

I personally couldn't have an animal and let them wander alone where they could be poisoned (accidentally or on purpose), run over, stolen, hurt by an animal or person, hurt an animal (or person, some cats are quite aggressive 😂). I would need to build a catio, cat proof the garden or similar.

Where I live the local Facebook groups are full of "have you seen my cat they've not come home for 9 days" "stop feeding my cat, she's on a medicated/specific diet" "that's the third cat I've had been run over" 🙁

Couldn’t agree more. Why do cat owners think it’s okay that their cats just go and shit on other people’s property and kill for fun? If they can’t be controlled to stay within the boundaries of a garden, then they are clearly not suitable to be domestic pets.

I’m sometimes tempted to invest in an air pistol for when the neighbours cats come into our garden and shit all over it or hide in the bushes next to the bird feeders.

I don’t think cats are suitable as domestic pets - certainly not in an urban environment. It’s very strange that owners think everyone else should just be cool about random cats wandering though their gardens, going to the toilet, killing birds etc.

it is certainly the case that a lot more dogs used to ‘roam’ in the 60s and 70s. There was also a lot less spaying and neutering of dogs, so if your female dog was on heat, there would sometimes be male dogs wandering down your drive. There was a load more dog mess on the pavements too.

Dogowners cleaned up their act but for some reason, cats are still allowed to run about. It’s no answer that cats shouldn’t be shut in. In that case, they shouldn’t be kept as domesticated pets in towns.

I've had cats all my life from the age of 8 and all have been allowed out during the day, but brought in at night. That is, sort of, with one exception. When I purchased my first flat it was an attic flat with two flights of stairs to the front door and no garden. Having moved in I was desperate to have my own cat again and got a farm kitten just 10 weeks old - straight from his mum and litter mates and never having been outside. I believed he would be able to adapt to indoor living in the flat with suitable attention, toys and climbing trees to keep him entertained. Fine for the first year - during the second year, he learnt to go out the window, across the roofs of the terrace houses, into my friends open window 3 doors down and out through their cat flap (they had two cats). You can imagine my surprise coming home that first day to find him waiting on my doorstep to come in for his supper! After that he would go out daily (fortunately my friend and her cats were very accommodating - she found it rather amusing) and he would go off to roam in the nearby park, but always back before dark. It proved to me that no matter what you think - cats do need to go outside.

you don’t seem to want to listen to anything anyone is explaining to you .
No enclosed garden is going to be large or stimulating enough for most cats. It isn’t that people care about protecting dogs more than cats, they are different animals with different needs.
We would all be safer if we stayed indoors or in our garden day and night and never cross a road but we do so for a reason.

Ghastly cage.

one more try

This subject has been debated many times before on Mumsnet in countless different guises. It never fails to ragebait, and it rarely ends well.

My cat Mog was chased by a dog who wasn’t on lead while I was outside with her. Mog was terrified but otherwise okay as she fled inside and straight up her 190cm “cat tree”. The owner just stood and laughed but I wonder if she would have been laughing quite so much if Mog had been over the road when the dog saw her. If we let Dogs dog as you put it they are just as likely to get hurt as cats. For the record Mog is never out and night and has never been outside unsupervised but she loves being out and rolling in the sun.

My cat is allowed to roam where she likes. She enjoys visiting other neighbours gardens. A catio is like a cage and fencing her inside her garden seems extreme. Cats are curious creatures. How would I supervise her roaming?! With a tracker collar?! Don’t make me laugh.

Domestic cats outnumber stray cats by 12 to 1, so I dare say that’s a bigger issue in terms of impact on wildlife.

Cats are much harder to contain as they can easily climb over fences, jump down from windows and roofs. If you sit in your garden a dog will happily stay with you, whereas a lot of cats want to explore the neighbourhood, You can curb their need to roam by having them neutered but if a cat really wants to get out, they will. They are very unlikely happy to be walked on a lead. Cats are solitary animals, dogs want to please their owners, which makes them much easier to train.

One cat was out late and killed by a coyote. Devastating! We tried putting Apple AirTags on their collars and only letting them out during the day when we were home. But then our male cat wandered a block away and was hit by a car.

No more outdoor cats! We finally got an outdoor catio. It gives us total peace of mind and the cats absolutely love it! 🐾

Because cats are not like dogs.

Facebook (like MN) isn't representative of any kind of rational thought or logic, though!

I have no skin in the game, as I am not a pet owner. However, my local Facebook page is full of missing cat posts, instructing us all to look in our sheds and garages. There are also loads of posts about cats getting run over / name-calling toward the drivers involved, and the dog owners are always on hand to remind them that the same laws don’t apply to cats who are run over. It gets pretty spicy.

But what about my crocodile? 🐊
Do I have to keep her in too?
She can get a bit snappy if confined to the kitchen.

The government recognises the need that cats have to roam and there are laws giving them the rights to roam, we domesticated dogs, cats domesticated us not the other way round